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During his last year of college, Chris learned discipline and illustrative techniques and became proficient with the airbrush — a skill that proved very useful in his later career as a professional illustrator. However, though he completed his assignments, he did so without any zeal. At night, he would paint large murals in oils depicting the world of Conan with a passion totally at odds with his college work.
After graduating, he immediately found work as an illustrator drawing weapons, equipment and maps for a magazine focusing on World War One. Unfortunately, after six months the magazine closed and Chris was made redundant. He was also now engaged to be married, which added to his concerns about his financial security.
Searching for solutions, he took a good look at the cover art displayed in the large bookshops of central London. It was the early seventies and, in Britain, science fiction and fantasy were just beginning to catch on. The first wave of UK editions featuring new covers painted by British artists began to appear. Chris bought several for reference, went home and, with the arrogance of youth, made calls to various publishers, telling them that their covers were not that good and he could do better.
Tandem Books asked him to prove it by showing his portfolio to their studio, Brian Boyle Associates. For some months Chris had been working hard replacing the college work in his portfolio with the fantasy art he hoped would lead to a book cover commission. To his delight, Brian Boyle liked what he saw and, there and then, gave him his first covers: UK reprints of a trilogy of American paperbacks, including a replacement for a Frazetta cover.
After he successfully completed his first assignment, Brian Boyle Associates hired him as a full-time illustrator. This was great experience for Chris. In two years, he learned about book design, camera-ready artwork and typography. He also painted dozens of book covers, including Westerns and the Clint Eastwood Fistful of Dollars series, science fiction, UFOs, horror, the King Kung-Fu series, militaria and historical fantasy novels.
Working in the heart of London meant Chris had access to advertising agencies and publishers, and he was soon busy on all sorts of advertising and numerous other jobs. He also began working on covers for Doctor Who novelisations and the Pellucidar series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, commissioned by his old boss, Brian Boyle.
A request for ‘glamour’ illustrations by erotic magazine Men Only, a prestigious title similar in cutting-edge style to Playboy, was another key stage in Chris’s artistic development. This naturally meant painting women, something he had not yet done with any confidence. Nevertheless, this work for Men Only would later bring Chris considerable fame — and notoriety.
